


Seven Days (And The Moon Keeps Shining)

by pianobookworm



Series: Day By Day (We'll Get Through This) [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, F/M, Friendship, Memory Loss, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7448326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pianobookworm/pseuds/pianobookworm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy tries to gather her emotions over this new Steve, and Bucky? Bucky was out of the loop for the last two weeks, so is he going to help or hurt the issue?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much for the _incredible_ amount of support you've shown for this series. It makes my heart happy to see how many people like my baby story!
> 
> I do not own any Marvel character. I just play with them for amusement's sake.
> 
> Unbeta'd, so all mistakes are my own.

It had been seven days, (now, since the clock had just struck midnight). And yes, maybe she was counting. Who could blame her? There wasn’t any hope, there couldn’t possibly be any. Not of him remembering, anyway.

_“I’m so sorry, Ma’am!”_

She had ran into him yesterday, spilling coffee all over one of the sweaters he had given her, and that was what he had said. _Ma’am_. As if she was just another woman that he didn’t know. Which she was. But in her head she had been screaming.

_No, no, no! I’m not Ma’am, I’m Darcy, or Darce, or even Darcy-girl, (sometimes, on very rare occasions), but I’m not Ma’am._

A strangled laugh had issued from her mouth instead, and she had just told him not to call her ‘Ma’am’. And then he had called her _Darcy_.

It was so right, so familiar, coming from his mouth—but it was so _wrong_ , at the same time. Steve didn’t know her anymore—didn’t remember her at all before Unless. And it had been too much.

_No, no, no, Steve, it’s me, you know me, we know each other, this is so wrong!_

And so she had run away, going someplace where she could cry on her own. She texted Jane and let her know that she was quitting work an hour early, and then she had come here, to her apartment.

She could get up on the roof of her apartment. (One day she had gone to the landlord and asked. He had looked at her strangely, but gave her permission and a key.) The roof was a good place, even though you couldn’t see the stars in New York City. At night it was cool and dark, and she could think, and tilt her head up to the sky, and pretend she could see the stars.

So she went up there and just _felt_ , without the added trouble of thinking. The moon was out, and although it didn’t have the same glory as in the desert, it was comforting. And for the first time since the incident, she let herself cry.

The tears came then: tears for her pain, tears for Steve and his lost memories, tears for the breaking of the lovely thing they had between them. And the crying eased the pain, if just for a moment.

When the initial storm of sorrow subsided, Darcy wiped her face with her sleeve and sighed. Just then her phone buzzed at her—a text from Bucky, of all people. Rubbing the blurriness from her eyes, she opened the text.

**Hey, doll, I’m almost back and Steve’s acting strange when I text him. Everything alright with you two?**

She closed her eyes and let her face drop into her hand tiredly. Bucky had been on a solo trip to some obscure part of the country. (Steve had wanted to go, but she had persuaded him to stay.) Had no one told him? _She_ hadn’t, obviously. Other things had been on her mind—but she would have thought one of the others would have told him how things went on their last mission.

After some thought, and with yet another sigh, she texted him back.

**No, things aren’t alright, but I don’t want to talk about this over text. But I do want to talk to you, and please please _please_ don’t talk to Steve about me.**

Soon the reply came:

**Why not? Darcy, what’s going on?**  
**Are you at your apartment?**  
**I’m about half-an-hour away, and I’m coming over there to talk to you, so you better be there to let me in.**

In spite of herself, she gave a small laugh at the over-protective tone of voice which was being conveyed through the texts. She quickly texted back.

**Don’t worry, I’m not going to disappear before you get here.**

She waited a second, then added:

**Thank you for coming.**

And then she relaxed, tilting her head back up at the moon and letting its cool light wash over her as she waited.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky visits Darcy to get some explanations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I'm sorry for the delay in posting! I didn't get anything written on Sunday, and this chapter was really hard to write, for some reason.
> 
> A huge thank you to everyone who's left kudos and comments! Seriously, those things keep me going better than a good cup of tea.
> 
> For this story, my head canon (and I'm the author, so does that make it *real* canon?) is that Bucky is like a big brother to Steve, and then he kind of adopted Darcy when he saw that Steve was falling in love with her. Also, let's just say that Age of Ultron and Civil War didn't happen, and Bucky came back on his own eventually, and everything was basically good. Almost.

Soon her phone buzzed again, and she started down the darkened stairwell as she checked the text. It was from Bucky, of course.

**I’m here; are you going to let me in?**

Without bothering to reply, she opened the door, revealing a scruffy metal-armed man. He gave her a concerned look, taking in her disheveled appearance and (she assumed) red-rimmed eyes. “Kid, are you alright?”

Tears sprang to her eyes and she shook her head slowly, not trusting herself to speak.

“Oh, c’mere, kid,” Bucky murmured, holding out his arms. She blinked, and then fell into his comforting hug.

“Bucky, he can’t remember me, and he won’t ever, and he’s been so…far away, he doesn’t even know me, and it’s so _hard_ …”

And Bucky was patting her back reassuringly, “Hey, kid, it’ll be alright, you’ll get through it, just wait and see…”

When she had finished melting down on him, he took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Kid, you and Steve will get through this, don’t worry.” He smiled. “Now, why don’t you take me up to the roof and tell me what happened?”

Giving a weak smile, she drew back and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry for breaking down on you like that…it’s been” she paused, “a rough week.”

_Rough week. If that isn’t the biggest understatement in the history of ever. Ha!_

Bucky smiled wryly. “I’m sure,” he commented as he followed Darcy up the stairs.

As Darcy went up the stairs, she counted the steps—a dull monotone voice in her head, attempting to distract her from thinking about Steve. _three, and Bucky doesn’t know what’s happening and I have to, four, tell him everything, five, nonono do i have to, six, it’s useless, it’s all useless…seven…_

“Kid, you’re not talking.” Bucky’s voice broke through the dull reverie she had fallen into. “Normally, you’d have talked my ear off already.”

Darcy sighed. “Yeah.” She continued up the stairs without saying anything else. _There’s not much to say, anymore._

Their steps sounded hollowly on the stairs until she opened the door to the rooftop and stepped out. Walking over to her ‘star-watching’ place, she picked up a blanket and handed it to Bucky silently.

Following her lead, he took the blanket and then sat down next to her.

“It’s almost the quietest time of the night,” she commented quietly, looking out at the city.

Bucky just sat quietly, irritatingly, refusing to make any response.

Darcy was silent as well, steeling herself to tell the story. Finally, when it was obvious that Bucky wasn’t going to ask her, she sighed.

“What do you know about it?”

He shrugged. “I had heard that something happened to Steve, but that he was alright.”

Smiling sadly, Darcy gave a small shrug. “Well, _he’s_ alright.” She was quiet for a while, looking out to the edge of the roof.

“You know my favorite coffee shop, the one two blocks away from the Tower?…”

Just saying the words brought back the memories in full detail.

_She had been walking to get coffee, since the coffee in the Tower, although nice, just wasn’t working for her that day. But before she could get there, she saw a strange glowing sphere descending through the air._

_Since that wasn’t exactly a normal thing, Darcy had responded in an ordinary manner: she had pushed the button on her phone which alerted the Avengers. (Well, maybe not so ordinary, but perfectly reasonable!) Her second response was to tell people, who had immediately started gawping at the thing, to leave._

_“Hey, guys, we don’t know if this is safe, let’s get out of here, ok?” And people had been listening, and moving away. But then she saw that the sphere was aiming for a building, and the people in that building didn’t have a clue, apparently._

_So she had been going to tell them to GET OUT OF THAT BUILDING RIGHT NOW when all of a sudden, the sphere had altered its descent (and how on earth did it do that?) and was now coming straight for her._

_She couldn’t breathe as she watched it, eyes wide. It was like those awful dreams, where you have to run, but your feet are entombed in concrete. It came closer and closer, glinting in the sun like a magnifying glass about to fry her brains out or some such negative thing._

_And then Steve had appeared out of nowhere, shoving her out of the way of the thing, as he shouted, “Darcy, you’ve got to run. NOW!” And she had followed his directions, looking back to see the sphere hit him and explode._

_And then she was running in the opposite direction, back to Steve, who had fallen down and wasn’t moving. "Steve! STEVE!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so yeah, I did make it three chapters...sorry. It was just taking too long to put in one chapter, if I'm going to keep things at all consistent. At least I put _some_ of the explanations in this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy finishes the tale of how Steve lost his memory, while Bucky listens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You. guys. are. totally AWESOME! Thanks so much for the amazing questions, comments, and kudos. I love you all!
> 
> I hope this chapter answers some of the questions you guys have had about the story, and yay! we finally see what happens!

Darcy paused in her narrative then, drawing in a shaky breath. “It’s my fault.”

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows at her frank statement. “Your fault? No it’s not. Steve would have done that for anyone.”

Shaking her head slowly, Darcy closed her eyes. “No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have just stood there; I should have run, or dodged, or _distracted_ it somehow.”

“ _Darcy_!” Bucky protested. “It _wasn’t your fault_. You were doing a good thing, trying to save other people. No one can blame you for that. But,” he held up his hand as she opened her mouth to argue, “let’s not discuss blame right now. You finish the story.”

Darcy nodded, turning her mind back to that day.

_There had been something attached to Steve’s head at the temple—she had tried to brush it off, thinking it was debris, but it hadn’t moved. And he still wasn’t waking up. He didn’t have any obvious injuries, that she could see, other than the thing stuck to his head, and his pulse was still beating, but it was worrisome._

_She had looked up at the sound of the Iron Man suit to see Tony landing next to her. His faceplate had flipped up, and he had looked out with a concerned expression on his face._

_“What’s Cap got himself into this time?” he muttered, and then bent over and picked the unconscious super-soldier up, proceeding to fly back to the Tower with him. And he did all that without even speaking to her._

_She had watched, horrified, but hoping that he had merely been knocked unconscious and would recover soon._

_A noise from behind had startled her, and she had turned to see Thor standing next to her. “Are you well, Lady Darcy?” he asked._

_She had shaken her head and pointed in the direction of the Tower. “Steve’s…been knocked out. He’s—he’s got something stuck to his head, and I couldn’t get it off, and Tony took him back to the Tower, and now I don’t know what’s happening and…”_

_Wrapping his arm around her waist, Thor had cut off her babbling by flying her the short distance to the Tower with Meu-meu. But even though it was her first time traveling that way couldn’t stop her mind from racing, wondering what all this urgency meant, dreading the worst._

_When they reached the Tower, Darcy rushed inside, numbly following people’s directions to where Steve had been taken. But the door, they wouldn't let her in, because she wasn’t related to him. She sank to the floor outside his door mutely for a few minutes, a knot of dread beginning to well in her stomach. There was no way that that was a good sign._

  
_Then Thor had walked out._

_“Darcy, we must take him to Asgard to treat him immediately—there is nothing we can do for him on Midgard.”_

_She had insisted on coming along, and he had allowed it, as she was “the Captain’s beloved,” as he put it._

_Even travel via Bifrost had been unable to distract her from the horrible likelihood that was Steve’s condition, and what could very easily happen to him._

_And then they had been in Asgard, and there was a huge fuss over Steve, and she couldn’t see him for a while. But she had raised an indignant protest at being separated from him, and was eventually summoned to the healing chambers._

_There she had been faced with the sight of a pale, motionless Steve. She had looked up at the healer in horror._

_“is he…?” she couldn’t bring herself to voice the words “dead” or “dying”._

_The woman had pressed her lips together grimly. “We cannot save him,” she stated blankly, “unless…” she had trailed off for a moment. “Unless you allow us to.”_

_Darcy had raised her voice disbelievingly. “Unless I allow you to?! Of course I will!…” and then she had realized that there must be something more. “But what’s the catch?” she had asked then, in a quieter tone of voice._

_Then the lady had explained about what the device had done to Steve’s head, how it was attacking his brain one memory at a time. “We can remove it and halt the effects,” she had said, “but that requires also removing the infected memories.”_

_Darcy had nodded slowly, not fully understanding. “So…why aren’t you doing it?”_

_The healer had looked her full in the face then. “Lady Darcy, you must understand that there will be a price to be paid.”_

_And she had nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll pay the price; I don’t care what it is. Just…save him!”_

_The lady had shaken her head. “I do not think you understand. Because the Captain was pushing you out of the way, the first thought the infection latched on to was of you. It has been spreading, taking his brain through his memories of you. In order to save him, we will have to remove every memory he has of you.”_

_Darcy had staggered then, reeling with the implications of what that meant. But she had held firm. “I don’t care,” she had lied. “Just do it. Save him—don’t worry about me.”_

Darcy stopped there, tears forcing their way out of her closed eyelids. “They were able to save him. But it’s almost as bad as having him gone, when he can’t remember me—when he treats me like I don’t exist.”

Bucky let out a long breath. “Whew, that’s something, kid. Punk doesn’t deserve a girl like you.”

“He doesn’t have a girl like me, not anymore,” she replied, almost bitterly.

Bucky shook his head slowly. “No, Darcy, I think he still has her. He just doesn’t remember.” Then he frowned. “Say, does that mean talking to him about you in his past could revive the infection thing?”

Darcy rubbed her forehead. “I don’t think so. We were a little worried at first, but I think the Asgardians took the thing out completely; just, to do that, they had to take all his memories of me.

Bucky winced sympathetically. “That’s awful rough. Is there any chance of him getting those memories back?”

Darcy shook her head. “No. They’re gone for good.” She looked out toward the east, where the first light of dawn was beginning to light the horizon. “Ugh, I’m tired. I think I’ll call Jane and let her know that I’m not coming in to work today.” She looked up at Bucky. "Could you please not tell Steve about him and me...together...in the past? I just-I guess I just want to talk to him about it myself, without other people interfering."

Bucky nodded. “Well, I guess I’ll head to the Tower.” He turned as he started down the stairs. “Hey Darce? I think you and Steve really ought to talk about this soon.”

And then he was gone, and Darcy gathered her blankets up as the pale morning light blanketed the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Errgh! I am quite frustrated right now at Darcy and Steve's refusal to talk to each other. It's very bothersome. But hopefully that will change, soon! I'm with Bucky on this one.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think, I love hearing from you!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it! Please, do let me know what you thought, I love hearing from you guys!


End file.
